Simply telling a child ‘not to lie’ does not work the same as telling them the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. Children can relate to George and his mistake, and see firsthand from the story the reward of telling the truth. When faced with a similar situation in their own life, the scenario guides children to tell the truth and not to lie.
Learning from real life examples maximizes learner engagement and knowledge retention. Children learn better through a story or a scenario that they can relate to, than from lectures and speeches, and us adults are no different. We learn from stories; they inspire us, motivate us, and we try to emulate them. Scenario or story-based learning places learners in realistic situations and urges them to use skills and information that they then can recall for future use.
When designing an eLearning course or a custom eLearning course, it is essential to understand and analyze the needs and expectations of the target audience and the outcome of that learning, and then zero in on the right instructional strategy. Learners need hands-on practice to teach different soft skills (such as communication, team building, decision-making, problem-solving, and others). In addition, for crisis training, like ‘Dealing with an Irate Customer’ or ‘Preparation for an Emergency Situation’, learners need to learn, practice, and perfect skills ahead of time to be prepared. Scenario-based learning is the best instructional strategy to achieve these outcomes.
Scenario-based Learning
Scenario-based learning is a dynamic and immersive approach to online learning that utilizes real-life situations or fictional scenarios to engage learners and enhance their understanding of a subject or topic. Instead of presenting information in a traditional lecture-style format, scenario-based learning presents learners with a story or situation in which they must make decisions or solve problems.
Learners are actively involved in the learning process as they navigate various scenarios, analyze the consequences of their choices, and receive immediate feedback. This interactive and hands-on approach promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills and helps learners apply their knowledge in practical situations. Scenario-based learning is particularly effective in complex or skill-based subjects, allowing learners to practice and reinforce their learning in a realistic context.
Advantages of Using Scenario-Based Learning
1. Enhancing Problem-Solving Abilities
- Real-Life Application: Learners acquire skills to address challenges they may face in their professions.
- Decision Making: They learn to analyze choices, consider outcomes, and make thought-out decisions.
- Creativity: Engaging scenarios prompt thinking as learners come up with solutions.
2. Boosting Critical Thinking Skills
- Analysis: Learners develop the ability to break down issues into manageable parts.
- Evaluation: They learn to assess the credibility of information and arguments.
- Synthesis: Combining pieces of information leads to insights for learners.
3. Fostering Collaboration and Teamwork
- Interpersonal Abilities: Collaborating in scenarios encourages collaboration and effective communication.
- Common Goals: Shared objectives in scenarios motivate learners to collaborate towards an objective.
- Diverse Perspectives: Group work exposes learners to viewpoints, fostering peer understanding.
4. Increasing Motivation
- Relevance: Connecting learning to real-world experiences through scenarios makes training more engaging and captivating.
- Active Involvement: Active participation in the learning process can boost learner motivation levels.
- Feedback Loop: Immediate feedback from scenarios helps learners enhance their performance effectively.
5. Transferable Abilities
- Flexibility: Skills honed through experience can be utilized in scenarios and environments.
- Continuous Learning: The capacity to troubleshoot, analyze situations critically, and work together is vital for learning endeavors.
What is a Good Scenario?
Here are some points describing what constitutes a good scenario in learning:
- Relevant and realistic context: Provide relatable content that applies to learners’ lives.
- Clear learning objectives: Clearly define the goals and outcomes of the scenario.
- Authentic and immersive storytelling: Engage learners through effective storytelling techniques.
- Meaningful decision-making opportunities: Allow learners to make realistic choices and solve problems.
- Immediate feedback and consequences: Provide prompt feedback to reinforce learning outcomes.
- Interactive and multimedia elements: Incorporate multimedia to enhance learner engagement.
- Progressive complexity: Increase difficulty level gradually to build knowledge and skills.
- Opportunities for reflection and application: Encourage learners to reflect and apply their learning.
- Collaboration and social learning: Foster interaction and community among learners.
- Mobile and user-friendly design: Ensure accessibility and ease of use across different devices.
But how do you write concrete scenarios that are both believable and effective?
How to Write a Good Scenario?
Here are seven tips:
1. Understand the Learners
To write concrete and effective scenarios you must understand your learners and know their needs and expectations. Understand the skills that they already possess, the extent of challenge that can be given to them, and the outcome that they want to attain to determine how the scenario should be framed and presented. Not understanding the learner might result in a scenario too boring or too complex to achieve the desired results.
2. Create Real Life and Relevant Situations
Make your scenarios as real as possible. A scenario is essentially a story with characters and situations, usually accompanied by questions that challenge the learner to respond. Unless the learner finds these situations believable and relevant, they will not relate to them. Only a realistic situation can engage the learner and help them retain useful information, so make your fictional scenarios as real and relevant as possible.
3. Motivate the Learner
A well-written scenario should motivate the learner to action. As previously mentioned, a scenario usually poses problem situations for learners to respond to and they are expected to do so by recalling their previous knowledge. Thus, an effective scenario motivates the learners to believe that they have the necessary skills to overcome any problem situation they encounter.
4. Challenge the Learners
A scenario will only work and help learners retain information when it challenges them.
Consider a course on ‘Communication Skills’ as an example. The course introduces two employees discussing their work profiles in the organization. In conclusion, the narrator states that the two workers have exemplified good communication skills. This scenario may be well-written using immaculate language and great style, but with nothing to challenge the learner, it is not going to be effective. The learner, in all probability, will read and forget the scenario. Only when the learner faces some sort of challenging situation and has to think of a solution will the scenario be effective.
The best way to write concrete scenarios is to present a problem situation, provide some clues for the learners to identify, and then provide the answer. However, keep in mind the challenge should not overwhelm the learners to the extent that they abstain from putting any effort to find the solution.
5. Use Informal and Conversational Language
It is generally a good idea to use conversational and informal language while writing scenarios. Learners can easily relate to the conversational style and find it easier to engage with the content. It also makes the scenario interesting and informal, so learning happens in a comfortable way. While in some cases, the overview of the scenario presents in a narrative manner even then the tone and style should remaining formal.
6. Use Interesting Interactivities
Another useful tip to make the scenarios interesting and effective is to use as many interactivities as possible. The most common form of interactivity in this case will be questions and answers. However, other interactivities, if relevant to the content, can be used to increase the overall engagement of the learners.
7. Use Visual Graphics
Finally, a scenario becomes much more effective when it is presented with visuals. Scenarios are after all stories and stories are best presented through visual images. Characters, backgrounds, callouts, labels, and other graphics make it engaging and interesting for the learners. They can also retain information if they have visual memory of the content
The fable of George Washington and the cherry tree may never have happened, but the scenario presented is a realistic situation that children can relate to. The language of the story is interactive and visual, engaging the senses. George’s tough decision challenges us to think, ‘What would I have done?’ Finally, George’s integrity and reward from his father motivates the listener to stand by moral convictions, no matter the situation. That is why ‘George and the Cherry tree’ has been used for over a hundred years to extol the virtue of telling the truth.
Use these tips to write your own legendary scenario-based training, but remember, be careful with your hatchet and do not lie.
